Integrative Mental Health Care: A Therapist's Handbook

by James Lake MD

Overview

Making sense of complementary and alternative treatments in mental health care.

In mental health care, as in medical care, more and more clinicians are turning to unconventional assessment and treatment approaches to evaluate and treat their patients in the most effective way possible. But how is a clinician to makes sense of the range of complementary and alternative treatments (CAM), and when is it appropriate and safe to use conventional therapies alongside them?

In this practical resource, Dr. Lake, a pioneer in the field of integrative mental healthcare, teaches readers how to integrate conventional mental healthcare—drugs and psychotherapy—with complementary and alternative approaches, including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids and other natural products, mind-body practices, light therapy, music, biofeedback, energy therapies, acupuncture, and others. This is a concise, evidence-based guide to the day-to-day management of common mental health problems using an integrative approach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393710618
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/05/2015
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

James Lake, MD, is on the clinical faculty at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. He practices in Central California.

Editorial Reviews

"[A]n accessible and credible guide…a much needed bridge between traditional Western biomedicine and the emerging world of non-traditional and complementary approaches."

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal

"Dr. James Lake is a pioneer in the emerging field of integrative mental health. In this text he artfully shares his philosophy, assessment strategies, and treatment approaches for a myriad of common conditions. Through detailed patient examples accompanied by his thoughtful analysis he conveys ways to better manage your patients in their healing journey."

Victoria Maizes

"James Lake's remarkable book is both inspiring and important for the numerous mental health professionals who seek legitimate information on a new dimension of health care. Written with warm objectivity, the book is a careful compilation of research and clinical practices classified under the rubric of integrative medicine. The material is most timely, and an antidote to the widespread frustration with the massive pharmaceutical industry."

Jeanne Achterberg

"Integrative Mental Health Care offers a rich synthesis of up-to-date evidence-based information with the wise, extensive experience of a world-renowned integrative psychiatrist. Dr. Lake offers keen clinical insights and clear guidance through tables, charts, and algorithms which simplify the complex and confusing world of diagnoses and multiple treatment options. His expertise in mainstream as well as alternative, complementary, and unconventional therapies provides essential information for therapists helping clients with diverse interests, values, and cultures in the modern world."

Kathi J. Kemper

"[A] remarkably thorough, highly informative, and instructive guide for practitioners with varying degrees of familiarity with integrative practice….clearly written, practical, well-referenced….Dr. Lake systematically builds a convincing case for incorporating alternative and complementary assessment and treatment methods into conventional practices in the hope of transforming Western medicine into ‘something more beautiful, meaningful and more effective.’ This excellent, user-friendly resource guide contributes greatly to that transformative vision."

Psychiatric Services

"[A] valuable handbook for any practitioner, and would serve as a helpful text for students of psychiatry and psychology. But it also provides a worthwhile read for any educated adult wishing to better understand the alternatives available to people with mental health challenges."

Metapsychology Reviews

Reviewer: Michael Easton, MD (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This is a superficial overview of a wide spectrum of various complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches to evaluating and treating a variety of psychiatric problems seen in clinical practice.
Purpose: It is intended as a guide for nonmedically trained therapists to help them incorporate practical integrative approaches into the treatment of their clients in order to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and support and enhance psychotherapy and conventional pharmacological therapy.
Audience: It is intended for psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, and other mental health professionals.
Features: The book begins by giving an overview of CAM, providing a perspective for assessing, making recommendations, and referring clients for integrative treatments. It goes on to look at a variety of clinical problems such as depression, mood swings, anxiety disorders, hyperactivity, psychosis, cognitive impairment, addiction, insomnia, and fatigue. Each chapter superficially reviews the traditional and nontraditional approaches for each clinical problem, followed by more lengthy clinical vignettes to provide examples of clinical applications of integrative healthcare. The appendix provides a brief recommended reading list and a long list of helpful web resources.
Assessment: This is an easy to read overview of a variety of complementary and alternative medicine approaches to various common clinical problems seen by therapists in mental health settings. For any therapists who are completely unfamiliar with integrative medicine, this book will help open a window to this very diverse and at times controversial area. CAM in mental health is an enormous field with extensive literature covering a wide variety of clinical interventions. While this book touches on some of them, it should not be used, as the publisher suggests, as a guide to incorporate integrative mental healthcare into one's practice and "equip practitioners with the knowledge necessary to provide the most effective and appropriate treatment for their clients." It can be a beginning point for those unfamiliar with CAM who want to learn more about this extensive field.

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